RayClay
Hall of Fame Poster
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- Nov 14, 2005
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I though AT got a bit of bad rap here. He had a solid season in 2007, and was on his way to a great season in 2008 when he broke his arm. Last season was as bad as everyone has said, but I have to wonder where the disconnect occurred.
Was it something to do with the coaching, or did he just lose that mental edge. You know at that level, even when a talented player loses that "mental edge", he can quickly become quite ordinary.
Maybe that is what everyone sees when they watch tape of him from last year.
I'll agree with that.
The problem wasn't him, really. the problem was we took a veteran on the tail end of his career and instead of expecting one or two good years and drafting some young players while we still had our real vets like Vrabel and Bruschi to mentor them, we let our real vets deteriorate, drafted new players too late and expected an over 30 mercenary to be a star and carry our whole line backing corps until we drafted some replacements.
He was what he was, and a Patriots veteran in his prime years ready to carry the load he wasn't.
For instance, I'll bet a lot of this attitude stemmed from AD being told that rookie Mayo was the leader of the defense.
The Patriots own this one. they make less mistakes than most, but this one was a doozy.
At least we have some young talent now.